Parks and Pop Century *And* A Park and Pop Century Christmas! *Plus* Downtown Disney

[meeko_33785]

Welcome to what is now three trip reports in one! This year, we’ve had a couple of great family trips to Walt Disney World enjoying the fun of the Disney Parks and the Pop Century Resort. I’m excited to be able to share stories and photos from these visits and hope that you’ll enjoy them.



Before we start, here is the cast list:

Meeko- College guy/ the author of this trip report. I’m probably the most energetic member of the family and occasionally a bit dramatic. If anybody over-plans for trips, chances are good it’s me, though I’m trying to be a little more flexible. I like the rides and shows at WDW, but I also enjoy getting pictures of the characters just as much. No one else in my family usually has much of an interest in characters, but they’re fairly patient about my quests for photos and autographs.

Buzz- My brother and still one of my best friends. Buzz is funny and artistic, working primarily in photography. He has an interest in animation of all kinds, but especially likes Disney and PIXAR animation, hence, my DIS nickname for him “Buzz”. At WDW (is in life in general) Buzz is usually a bit mellower than I am. Along with the major attractions, he also enjoys finding the little details that each of the parks have to offer.

Mom- My mother is passionate and loves to learn about history and cultures. One of Mom’s favorite parts of WDW is World Showcase at EPCOT. She loves seeing the countries. She also enjoys dining throughout the parks and resorts (she’s usually the first to start browsing the Disney menus online to start making suggestions on where we should eat) and relaxing around the resort and pool.

Dad- How to sum up Dad? I guess you could say he’s kind of goofy at times, but he can be fun too. He loves to relax on our trips and loves to take it easy. One of the running gags in our family is that if you’re not sure where Dad is, he’s probably sitting on the nearest bench. He’s also into The Nightmare Before Christmas and wishes that there were more Nightmare-related things in the parks.



"Parks and Pop Century" Trip Report- August 2008


It’s time for a trip report! This is the family's summer visit to WDW complete with three days in the theme parks. Before the report starts, here’s a sneak peeks at what you’ll see and read about:

A stay at Pop Century Resort...

PIXAR Place, Toy Story Mania and other new additions...

Dining including our first meal at the Plaza Restaurant at MK...

Character meet-and-greets (including a few new faces)...

Some rain...

and ducks?


For easy access to any of the chapters from the pre-trip for trip report, here’s an index of them all:

Preparing for the Parks and Pop Century- Pre-Trip Highlights

• Introduction (PTR Post #1)
• Dining (PTR Post #3)
• Pop Century Pics (PTR Post #4)
• Potential New Experiences (PTR Post #7)
• 10-Year Flashback- July 1998 Mini Trip Report (Part One) with pics! (PTR Post #9)
• 10-Year Flashback- July 1998 Mini Trip Report (Part Two) with pics! (PTR Post #10)
• 10-Year Flashback- July 1998 Mini Trip Report (Part Three) with pics! (PTR Post #11)
• Plans and Itenerary (PTR Post #14)
• Character Photos (PTR Post #16)
• The Last Time I Saw... EPCOT (Photos) (PTR Post #18)
• The Last Time I Saw... Magic Kingdom (Photos) (PTR Post #19)
• The Last Time I Saw... Disney-MGM St... Disney's Hollywood Studios... Whatever Studios (Photos) (PTR Post #20)

The Trip Report

• Day One, Part One- Arrival and EPCOT (Post #5)
• Day One, Part Two- The United Kingdom feels so authentic! (Post #12)
• Day One, Part Three- Characters Between the Raindrops (Post #15)
• Day One, Part Four- Back To The Future (World) (Post #18)
• Day One, Part Five- At Least One Out Of Two Rides Isn't Broken (Post #25)
• Day One, Part Six- More Sights of World Showcase (Post # 28)
• Day One, Part Seven- The World Tour Ends (Post #40)

• Day Two, Part One- Welcome to the Magic Kingdom (Post #46)
• Day Two, Part Two- A Jolly Holiday on Main Street (Post #52)
• Day Two, Part Three- Spooks and Stepsisters (Post #59)
• Day Two, Part Four- Why Haven't We Eaten Here Before? (Post #68)
• Day Two, Part Five- Solo at the Magic Kingdom (Post #74)
• Day Two, Part Six- Poor Mom (Post #80)
• Day Two, Part Seven- Riding Rides with Short Lines (Post #91)

• Day Three, Part One- Toy Story Midway Mania (Post #96)
• Day Three, Part Two- Singin' In The Rain (Post #99)
• Day Three, Part Three- Tale as old as time... (Post #105)
• Day Three, Part Four- Will We See A Parade? (Post #111)
• Day Three, Part Five- Characters Galore (Post #112)
• Day Three, Part Six- Hollywood and Vine (and Sunset) (Post #118)

• Day Four- Departing from Pop (Post #119)

• Final Thoughts (Post #120)

**************


"A Park and Pop Century Christmas" Trip Report- December 2008


The second addition to the trip report is our Park and Pop Century Christmas, our brief visit to WDW during the holiday season. Along with attractions, characters, dining and extra surprises like I included in the summer report, there’ll also be plenty of photos of Christmas decorations from…

Pop Century Resort...

Grand Floridian Resort...

and Magic Kingdom, including…

The Castle Dream Lights!


For easy access, each of the chapters from the pre-trip have been indexed here and each chapter from the trip report will be added as they are posted:


Preparing for A Park and Pop Century Christmas- Pre-Trip Highlights

• Introduction (Post #137)
• Initial Itinerary (Post #143)
• 10 Year Flashback- December 1998 Mini Trip Report (Part One) (Post #144)
• 10 Year Flashback- December 1998 Mini Trip Report (Part Two) (Post #147)
• Characters (Post #152)
• Slightly Off-Topic, Busch Gardens at Christmastime (Post #155)
• Attraction Priorities (Post #158)
• Photos of Christmas Past (Post #159)

The Trip Report

• Day One, Part One- Arrival (Post #170)
• Day One, Part Two- First Rides of the Day (Post #175)
• Day One, Part Three- Main Street at Christmastime (Post #184)
• Day One, Part Four- A Grand Time at the Grand Floridian (Post #190)
• Day One, Part Five- Tom Sawyer's Island (Post #196)
• Day One, Part Six- Fun and Fantasyland(Post #206 and Post #207)
• Day One, Part Seven- A Sparkling Castle and Fairy Tale Princesses (Post #212)
• Day One, Part Eight- Will We Finally Get On Big Thunder Mountain? (Post #219)
• Day One, Part Nine- Goodbye Magic Kingdom(Post #219)

• Day Two- Another morning at Pop(Post #228)

**************


"Downtown and Downtown Disney" Trip Report- February 2009

The last addition to this report is Buzz and my day in Orlando. Unlike the other reports there will be no Parks and no Pop Century, no characters and no overnight stays, but there was...

A visit to Downtown Orlando to check out the Jim Henson's Fantastic World exhibit (sorry, photography was not allowed inside the museum, though)...

Buzz and my first time back to Downtown Disney in over a year...

And our first chance to "Celebrate Today"!


For easy access, each of the chapters from the pre-trip have been indexed here and each chapter from the trip report will be added as they are posted:


The Trip Report

• Part One- Jim Henson's Fantastic World (Post #236)
• Part Two- Downtown Disney Marketplace (Post #243)
• Part Three- More Shops and Obscure Character Refrences (Post #251)
• Part Four- Pleasure Island and West Side (Post #254)

**************


Final Thoughts

To wrap up all three reports, here are the Top 7 Highlights of the report.



**************


Next Chapter:The August report begins. Will we make it to EPCOT before FastPasses run out at Soarin'?

 

[pikafreaks]

I'm so in!


The pictures look awesome~


Cant wait to read more............

 

[WDW Fan]

Hurry back with more.

 

[meeko_33785]

I'm so in!


The pictures look awesome~


Cant wait to read more............

Thanks so much. Glad to have you aboard.

Hurry back with more.

Hopefully the next installment will be ready soon (maybe tomorrow).

 

[meeko_33785]

After some early-morning driving, we arrive at Pop Century. By now it’s almost 9:30am and the parks are open, so once we arrive, there’s no time to lose. The plan is to quickly check in and get right on the bus to EPCOT. Soarin’ is a favorite of all of us, especially Mom and Dad, and since we skipped it last year, it’s one of our main priorities. My only worry was that I’ve been reading on the boards that over the summer, FastPasses for it have run out as early as 10am! I figured that we needed to get to EPCOT fast if we had any hope of getting a FastPass and not having to wait an hour or more in the Standby queue.


There’s no line at check-in so Dad and I head to the desk to check in to our respective rooms. The CM at the desk said that our rooms weren’t ready yet, but that we would have adjoining rooms and that they would be in the 80s section near the giant Roger Rabbit statue. We’d never stayed in that area before, so I was excited. We caught up with Mom and Buzz in the Everything Pop shop and after briefly looking around we head to the EPCOT bus stop.

Along the way, we spot this retro trailer and map. I believe that when it’s in use it’s just a DVC info kiosk, but it looks pretty cool like this complete with old-fashioned looking Mickey and WDW logo.

After a little wait, an EPCOT bus pulls in shortly followed by another EPCOT bus. I believe it was one of the older buses so there wasn’t any music or automated spiel, which was ok. Can’t decide whether I like the buses better with or without music. Soon we arrive at EPCOT.

Before we go in the park, we need to exchange our Play 4 Days ticket vouchers for tickets, so first stop is the ticked window. Again, there is no line (maybe crowds won’t be so bad after all?) and the CM quickly gets everything ready. In no time, we’re inside the park.

Last time we were here, the Mickey wand and stars were in the process of being removed from Spaceship Earth, so this was the first time any of us were at EPCOT to see Spaceship Earth back to its pre-Millennium look. It looks great.

Had to get the shot of Spaceship Earth with the monorail going by.


Next, we make our way to The Land to attempt to get FastPasses for Soarin’, hoping that they weren’t all gone yet. When we get there, we discover that The Land is a crazy, chaotic mess. People everywhere walking into each other, trying to all fit on the escalators. After all the stress of getting through all that you need a relaxing ride like Soarin’! When we finally make it to Soarin’, the wait time is up to 65 minutes and the FastPass times was around 3pm. As quickly as we could got in line to get some passes. After this, we decide to get out of The Land and head towards Spaceship Earth, so we head out of pavilion, feeling a bit like fish swimming upstream through a river of tourists.


The line at Spaceship Earth looks a bit long, but the sign says that the wait time is around 15 minutes and goes quickly, rarely stopping.

My attempt at an artsy picture of the tiles on Spaceship Earth.

This was the first time that we’d been to the park since Spaceship Earth had reopened from its refurbishment. It was still pretty enjoyable. The writing on the narration was a little lame and felt like it was trying too hard to be to be hip and relative to the kids (The roads of Rome were the first information superhighways?) The new scenes were nice though as was the new interactive finale. Mom and Dad really loved that part. They were having a great time with it.

After we got off the ride, we began to head towards World Showcase since it was getting close to time for our ADR at Rose and Crown. Along the way, per Mom’s request, we pass through the Rose Walk that leads to World Showcase.

Next Chapter: What makes the United Kingdom feel so authentic?

 

[cajunfan]

Great start! Can't wait for more!

 

[vdarrell]

Ready for MORE.

 

[Leslieann1024]

Can't wait for the next installment ! Off to a great start !

 

[Sleeping*Beauty]

Can't wait for more!!

I love the picture of the Disney Ducks!

 

[WDW Fan]

Great start! Loved your pictures especially the Spaceship Earth with the Monorail running through!!

 

[meeko_33785]

Great start! Can't wait for more!

Thanks. Glad to know that you're enjoying it.

Ready for MORE.

More is on the way. The next chapter is almost finished.

Can't wait for the next installment ! Off to a great start !

Glad you liked it. Thanks for responding.

Can't wait for more!!

I love the picture of the Disney Ducks!

Hi! I promise you there will be more ducks ahead.

Great start! Loved your pictures especially the Spaceship Earth with the Monorail running through!!

Thanks. That's one of my favorite pics too. Seemed to really turn out nice. Glad you're enjoying it.

 

[meeko_33785]

Off to World Showcase! As we arrive, we’re greeted by some ducks that walk right in front of us in order to get to the lagoon.

I promised that there would be ducks, didn’t I?


We pass by Canada for now and head straight on to the United Kingdom. We figure that we’ll be back to Canada later in the day since we want to see the new movie here with Martin Short. There’s still a little time before our ARD time comes up, so we spend some time looking around the UK area.

First thing, I head to the edge of the UK and check out France from across the “river”. I wanted to start with a look at my favorite pavilion in EPCOT.


Returning to the UK, I get some more pics of the atmosphere and architecture around the area.

There was some refurbishment of part of the façade of this building. It’s just off camera to the left. There didn’t seem to be as much construction going on around EPCOT as last year, but there was still a fair amount.

Next we head off to the Rose and Crown Dining Room to check in a few minutes before our time. The restaurant wasn’t quite ready yet, so we’re given a pager and sit down at one of the tables on the street to wait.

While we’re waiting, the sky begins to look a little dark and slightly ominous. Seeing the black clouds rolling over the pavilion seemed like something out of a British murder mystery or horror story. Didn’t appear that the weather was going to be all sun and blue sky today, but it’s August in Florida so what else is new? By the time our pager went off, we still hadn’t seen a drop of rain and it appeared that the storm was going to miss us.

We’re promptly seated inside in an area of the dining room just off the pub. Nice atmosphere, friendly service. The whole restaurant was just filled with the aroma of fish and chips, so how could I have ordered anything else? It was delicious, but the portions were huge! Everyone had an enjoyable meal. None of us had been here in years (I think 1996 was the last time we were here?) so it was nice to revisit it.


Following lunch, we spent a little more time wandering around the UK. As we were there, the sky opened up and the rain that appeared was going to pass us by finally arrived. Not a full-out thunderstorm, but enough rain to send Mary Poppins who had been doing meet-and-greets near the gazebo make a mad dash backstage (who knew Mary could sprint like that ). As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I heard another guest also dodging the rain under an overhang between a couple of shops utter the same thought- “Well, this rain makes it really feel like you are in England”. There’s that extra authenticity! Soon the rain seemed to clear and we headed off to France.

Still not an incredibly beautiful day, but at least the rain had stopped. I tried to get more of the Eiffel Tower in the shot, but that’s about all I could get. We spent some time just exploring around the pavilion. Mom loves to look at the shops here, so she went off to do that. I headed over to Belle’s Library near the perfume shop to look around and get a few pictures.

Two of my favorite Disney fairytales in their French translations. Even if you don’t know French, I’m sure you can figure out the English titles.

Looks like Belle’s been reading The Hunchback of Notre Dame lately.

Continuing the Hunchback theme- a gargoyle (though this one doesn’t talk like Quasi’s friends).

The Beauty and the Beast stained glass from inside the library.



Next Chapter: More of World Showcase and the first character photos of the trip.


(Not sure how long it will take to get this next chapter up. We’re all preparing to brace for Tropical Storm Fay down here in Florida. It’s possible that I could be without power or internet if the storm should hit. Hopefully it won’t be any worse than that, but we’ll have to wait and see. Until then, enjoy this chapter)

 

[MEK]

Awesome, awesome pictures. I am enjoying your detailed report. Good luck with the Hurricane.

 

[meeko_33785]

Awesome, awesome pictures. I am enjoying your detailed report. Good luck with the Hurricane.

Thanks. Glad you like the report. Looks like the storm won't be too bad here. It won't even make it to a hurricane and haven't even had that much wind. Hopefully it doesn't get too much worse.

 

[meeko_33785]

After exploring France for a bit, I was ready to see if I could find any characters. I had been hoping to find the Beast since I haven’t seen him in a while, but after the rain it didn’t seem like any of the characters in France had returned after the rain shower earlier. Across the water, I spotted Chip and Dale at the International Gateway, so I headed over to see them. Not exactly the characters I was hoping for, but Chip and Dale are always fun too.

There weren’t a lot of people around, so the line was short. After visiting with the chipmunks I headed back to France.

A little display along the “river”.

The artist’s inspiration.


Back in France, it seemed like the characters seemed to be coming out. I seemed to arrive back in the pavilion at the same time as Princess Aurora so I went over to get a photo.

Aurora seems to be the least-recognized princess, or at least the one most the one most confused with other princesses. There was only one family in line in front of me. The little boy in the family takes a look at Aurora and tells his family, “That’s not Sleeping Beauty.” The mother tried to convince him that it was, but he knew it wasn’t because “Sleeping Beauty has black hair”. The mother told him that was Snow White who had black hair which confused him more. Well, they did both fall asleep. Dad’s not much better. His park ticket had Cinderella and Prince Charming on it to which he responds “I got Prince Charming and Sleeping Beauty on mine”. All these years he still hasn’t gotten the princesses straight.


After bidding Aurora goodbye, I headed off to see if the Beast was out, but found only Belle. I checked with the character attendant with Belle (who was one of the best I saw the entire trip, very friendly and great at engaging the kids waiting to see the characters) if the Beast would be out. Apparently, the Beast was off doing “Princely things” in the castle and decides when and if he comes out, but she thought that he might be out later. Belle’s line was pretty short so I decided that as long as I was there, I might as well meet her.

World Showcase has to have some of the best backdrops for the characters.

We all managed to meet back together after our exploring and picture taking to head on to Morocco.

Our Fastpass time for Soarin’ was beginning to approach, so we decided that since Morocco had a Friendship boat dock, we’d hop on the boat and head to Future World instead of having to walk all the way around the lagoon.

One of the Thousand and One Arabian Nights.


While I was looking around, I noticed that the Beast was now out with Belle, so I headed back to France and got in line to see them.

Beauty and the Beast- together.

I asked Belle if it would be alright to get a photo of just the Beast since I had gotten a photo of her by herself earlier. The Beast!


Next, we started to all meet up near the Friendship dock. In no time, a boat was ready to take us to Future World. When we got off the boat, we noticed that it was now raining and began raining harder… and harder. Quickly, run to the nearest cover!

Déjà vu! We got stuck in one of these shops here last summer too. What is it about Showcase Plaza that makes the skies just open up when we’re here?



Next Chapter: Not even rain can keep us from Soarin’!

 

[WDW Fan]

I guess it's hard to avoid rain showers in Florida during the summer months. Great pictures.

 

[meeko_33785]

I guess it's hard to avoid rain showers in Florida during the summer months. Great pictures.

True, at least a little rain every day in the summer is pretty much a fact of life in Florida. It's actually not too bad as long as there's no lightning (and thankfully, there was none this day). Keeps the temperature from getting too hot.

 

[meeko_33785]

So there we are getting off the Friendship boat in Showcase Plaza to make our way to Soarin’ when it suddenly begins to rain. It doesn’t look like it’s going to rain long enough to warrant breaking out the ponchos, so we take this time to look around one of the shops in the area until the rain lightens up.

Until that happens, we can always look at the displays and pretend we’re in Paris…

Or maybe Venice.


This was the first point of the trip I can really recall looking though a souvenir shop (ok, maybe browsing through pins but not really anything else). They had some really interesting retro-looking EPCOT shirts which were kind of cool, but nothing that I would see myself buying. Soon the rain lifts and we head off to The Land.

Things don’t seem quite as crazy here as it did earlier, but it’s still pretty crowded. The line for Soarin’ has gotten even longer though- up to 100 minutes! Good thing we have FastPasses! We get right in line and in no time at all we’re getting ready to ride. We got seats in the front row (which is nice since you don’t see a bunch of feet dangling over the screen like you do in the back rows). Great ride, we all enjoyed it, especially Mom and Dad. This is either their favorite WDW attraction or at least one of their favorites.
And for those who wondered if there would still be FastPasses left after 2pm…

Nope.

After Soarin’, we noticed that the line for Living with the Land is only 5 minutes or so, so we get in line.

Can’t believe that we hadn’t been on this in years, especially since Dad is really interested in gardening and all. Not sure when they changed the format from having an on-board guide and narrator to having a fully pre-recorded spiel, but I didn’t see too much of a difference. I guess having a live person reading the spiel didn’t really add that much to the attraction.

Check out the Mickey pumpkin!


After the ride, we wanted to head back to World Showcase to see the rest of the countries, but before that, we headed over to Innoventions. We had heard that there was a new exhibit celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the park somewhere near the Character Spot and Club Cool, so we checked it out.

It was a fairly small gallery near the exit of the Character Spot, but it had a bunch of interesting models, props, costumes and memorabilia from the early days of EPCOT.

Inspirational art and models used in the creation of the Italy pavilion.

Miniature model of the Germany pavilion.

I still kind of regret never riding Horizons. This, World of Motion and the original Universe of Energy were the only major original EPCOT attractions that I missed before it was replaced.

Dreamfinder’s Dream Catcher in miniature.



Next chapter: On to Mexico and beyond.

 

[Lady Lallie]

What wonderful pictures! I can't wait to read and see more.

 

[kimsuenew]

Awesome TR so far... we can't wait to read more!